Monitoring Amur Leopards in Southwest Primorskii Krai (WCS Russia)

Goal: Implementation of a more extensive network across habitat outside the national park and, establishment of a joint database which will be used in analyses of the total leopard population in Southwest Primorskii Krai.

Land of the Leopard National Park (LLNP), established in 2012, encompasses nearly 75% of Amur leopard habitat in Russia. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has partnered with the park since its inception to monitor leopard numbers there and has monitored leopards in the Nezhino region (now part of LLNP) since 2003, and the Northern sector since 2014. In 2018, WCS aim to continue monitoring Amur leopards via camera traps in the long-term study sites in LLNP, and extend monitoring to leopard habitat outside park borders as well. When combined with monitoring data from other partners (responsible for the central, southern, and border portions of the park), this expansion to areas currently not surveyed should ensure that nearly all suitable habitat in Southwest Primorye is being monitored, thereby allowing WCS to more completely estimate population size on the Russian side of the border.